Economy

Whether it will sell in a country undoubtedly frightened by terrorism and weary of unemployment hovering around 10 percent is unclear, but it is certain that Ms. Le Pen’s National Front party is closer than it has ever been to gaining power in France after over 40 years of existence. Polls show that she is very likely to reach at least a second round of voting in France’s two-stage electoral process this spring.

Citizens United was the ultimate absurdity in a long series of court decisions defending the "civil rights" of corporate persons. It essentially legalized bribery. Justice Stevens wrote in a dissenting opinion,

"...corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."

Trump's approach to Wall Street is in sharp contrast to his tough-talking stances on terrorism. He talks a big game when slamming the door on penniless refugees, but curls up like a beach weakling around guys who have more money than he does.

The two primary disasters in American history this century have been 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis, which cost 8.7 million people their jobs and may have destroyed as much as 45 percent of the world's wealth.

The circumstances that led to Herb’s eviction — living check to check, with rent taking up a disproportionate amount of earnings — are distressingly commonplace in the U.S. One-third of adults aged 50 or older spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to a 2014 report. And the housing market in this country is unforgiving to those who cannot pay. Meanwhile, the average age of the nation’s homeless population is increasing faster than that of the general public. In 1990, an estimated 11 percent of the adult homeless population was over the age of 50. By 2003, that number had increased to 32 percent. Today, researchers put the figure closer to 40 percent — and rising.

Snap Inc. — home of social media giant Snapchat — officially announced on Thursday that it is going to conduct an IPO. In its filing, the company is looking to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the proposed ticker symbol of SNAP.

With this offering, Snap is looking to raise $3 billion, with the offering expected to be valued between $20 billion and $25 billion.

In October 2016, Anthony Scaramucci compared the U.S. Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule to Dred Scott v. Sandford, the 1857 U.S. Supreme Court decision protecting slavery and ruling that blacks couldn’t be citizens. “The left-leaning Department of Labor has made a decision to discriminate against a class of people who they deem to be adding no value,” said Scaramucci, a fund-of-funds marketer who was also an adviser and public supporter of Donald Trump’s campaign. And he said that, if elected, Trump would repeal the fiduciary rule.

In late 2015, InsideClimate News published a multi-part investigation of Exxon’s role in the cover-up. The series “describes how Exxon conducted cutting-edge climate research decades ago and then, without revealing all that it had learned, worked at the forefront of climate denial, manufacturing doubt about the scientific consensus that its own scientists had confirmed.”

“By the time 2050 rolls around, the world will have 10 billion people and the demand for food will double,” Robb Fraley, Monsanto’s Chief Technology Officer, tells Business Insider. “The whole point here is that the business combination between Monsanto and Bayer will allow the companies to invest in and create more innovation, and it's going to take a huge amount of innovation in order to double the world's food supply.”

National Front leader Marine Le Pen will take back control of the central bank and fire up the printing presses as she leads France out of the euro if she wins the presidential election in May, her chief economic adviser said. Le Pen is making a ...

Ms Le Pen's promises have won her enough support, polls say, to win the first round of the presidential contest. Her problem lies in winning the second. In the run-offs, her rivals have always managed to attract votes from other parties; Marine Le Pen...

Rob Shepler pointed me to a page outlining Elliot Coleman's method for small scale organic farming. I have been piddling in gardening, without much productivity frankly, and am happy to learn some more effective ways to do things. Man, there IS quite a learning curve!

Rob has recommended the beds about 30" wide, separated by a 12" path between them. This lets you have access to hand tend plants or roll a wheelbarrow in, but minimizes space lost to paths. If your rows are of a standardized length, then your row covers (*squirrel defense cages* around here) and cold frames will be interchangeable.

I am planning on using Lambertad's design for cold frame covered in plastic in the early spring and fall and covered in chicken wire for the summer months to keep squirrels off.

Lambertad's design has the great advantage that all the fittings needed are standard and therefore available at a local hardware store (not requiring special greenhouse store purchases). Plastic sheeting can be clipped to the 1/2" PVC pipe frame by these "snap clamp" thingies.

Making the frame in shorter 8' sections placed end-to-end will leave them manageable to lift off the beds.

The PVC frame does not have to be glued, and can be disassembled for storage. (Standardizing the sizes will help reassembly next year.)

And it is time to plant broccoli seeds here in zone 6a. They go in the ground in early to mid-march around here.

‘Torture Memos’ author John Yoo thinks Trump has gone too far

At a time when the Western world desperately needs alternative voices to the neoliberals, the neoconservatives, the presstitutes and the Trump de-regulationists, there are none. The Western leftwing has gone insane.

The voices being raised against Trump, who does need voices raised against him, are so hypocritical as to reflect less on Trump than on those with raised voices.

Sharon Kelly McBride, speaking for Human Rights First, sent me an email saying that Trump stands on the wrong side of “America’s ideals” by his prohibition of Muslim immigrants into the US.

My question to McBride is: Where were you and Human Rights First when the Bush/Cheney/Obama regime was murdering, maiming, orphaning, widowing, and displacing millions of Muslims in seven countries over the course of 4 presidential terms?

Why is it OK to slaughter millions of peoples, destroy their homes and villages, wreck their cities as long as it is not Donald Trump who is doing it?....

Many here at PP are familiar with the political faction called the neoconservatives (neocons). This will not be much of a surprise to long-term members.

General Wesley Clark gives this talk at the SF Commonwealth Club in 2007 where he reveals that the neoconservative factions plan was to destabilize the middle east as far back as 1991. He describes a "policy coup" where this faction took over the policy of the US government in secret and without public debate.

A 2 minute hint is offered here in an interview with Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow:

Rob Shepler pointed me to a page outlining Elliot Coleman's method for small scale organic farming. I have been piddling in gardening, without much productivity frankly, and am happy to learn some more effective ways to do things. Man, there IS quite a learning curve!

Please remember that Elliot Coleman has been gardening for decades, he knows his soil intimately, and he is purposely maximizing his production because he makes his living (in part) by selling micro greens.

I don't follow your posts enough to know what "piddling in gardening, without much productivity" means. But buying expensive equipment may not be an appropriate solution to your problem. Lack of productivity could mean poor soil or water conditions, lack of time to care for a garden, poor germination from a bad lot of seeds, loss due to predation, etc. It is not always about the tools we use.

If you consider yourself more of a beginner, I would recommend Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening. (But it sounds like you are beyond that.) If you have an established bed for long rows but have been stuck seeding by hand and weeding on your knees, consider an Earthway seeder and a good wheel hoe and collinear hoe.

In any case, I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm for 2017 as a productive growing year. I'm looking forward to getting into my small market garden! I just wanted to make sure you have done your due diligence to ensure that any investment you make fits your goals and scale.